


Interlude

by Alcyone



Category: Perfect Match (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-20
Updated: 2018-10-20
Packaged: 2019-08-04 21:21:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16354538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alcyone/pseuds/Alcyone
Summary: A missing scene from book 2, chapter 4.





	Interlude

Alone, Damien took a breath. 

There had been days (badly measured, mapped on estimates of hours spent awake, hours—ever fewer—asleep) when he would not see or hear another person. Even then, he was not truly alone. The subject of an experiment was not afforded the privilege of privacy. Cameras in the walls, cameras in the lights, the furniture… He would have gambled on the bed having been one big sensor.

Using the latest in behavioral science and technology to turn a person inside out.

He buried his face in his hands.

_Narita. ANA 8. Nonstop. Nine hours, twenty minutes. Landing in San Francisco at 10:30pm._

He went over the details of their cab and flight until he could raise his head. His reflection stared back at him in the bathroom’s white light. For a long moment, he searched his face as if seeking some visible mark, a physical proof that _that happened_. 

There was the obvious: a heavy stubble resulting from a lack of a razor. Damien scratched his jaw. He had not been allowed anything sharp—too much a risk. For similar reasons, his hair was a little longer. He thought he glimpsed a line that hadn’t been there before. A deeper furrow to his brow. 

Nothing that could not be attributed to anything else.

Looking down to the slight tremble of his fingers, he was not sure how to feel.

A knock on the door pulled him out of his reverie.

“Damien?” Kai’s voice held a soft note of concern. “Can I come in?”

He swallowed twice before answering. “Yeah. Yeah,” he repeated a little louder.

Twisting the faucet’s handle, he plunged his hands under the water to seem busy. A little hiss escaped him when the freezing cold water hit his skin. Damien glanced over his shoulder at Kai when she stepped inside, letting the door shut behind her. 

“How was your walk?”

“It was good. Ate sushi. Watched a sumo match. Played video games.” Kai smiled at him in the mirror. “My ‘things to do while in Japan’ bingo card is on its way to full.” 

“You know you’ll never beat Nadia,” Damien returned with an easy grin, shutting off the water and leaning back against the countertop. 

Kai rolled her eyes.

“That’s why I said I’m on my way to full, not on my way to _winning_. Nadia filled out three cards’ worth in one day.”

Damien laughed, and the action eased a little of the heaviness. When he reached for her hands, Kai stepped into his embrace willingly.

“What about you?” she asked, tipping her head back to look at him. “What time are we leaving?”

“In the morning,” he answered. _Narita. Nonstop. Nine hours, twenty minutes._ “Wrong coast, but I’m so ready to be back in the States.”

Kai’s smile adopted a wry turn. “Gallivanting around the globe not for you?”

“I’ve had enough gallivanting for a lifetime, thank you. I’m ready to do the exact opposite of gallivanting.”

“So binging true crime shows on Netflix?”

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“What do you take me for? I’ll be binging _Ice Road Truckers_.”

She burst out laughing and Damien could feel himself grinning like an idiot. When she raised a hand to his cheek, he leaned into the gesture. His thumb stroked mindless arcs into the delicate skin of her inner wrist.

“You look so different like this,” she observed.

“I was thinking of taking it off.”

Kai made a considering moue.

“I like you shaven.” She tugged teasingly on his new facial hair. “But I also won’t say no to you keeping it.”

Damien caught her hand with a smile. He pressed a kiss to her palm.

“I should probably leave you to finish showering,” she said, eyes falling to the clothes he had dropped on the countertop. Recent acquisitions from the look of them. All in his style. All of them new to him.

_Narita. Nonstop._

“Yeah,” he responded, not letting go of her. 

An uncharacteristically shy expression crossed her face.

“Is it okay if I stay?” Kai added quickly, “I’m not asking for anything more, I know you’re not— I just—” 

She stopped, biting her lower lip. She dropped her gaze before looking at him with eyes rife with emotion. “I’ve really missed you.”

In answer, he took her into his arms, nuzzling her hair.

Under the spray, they held each other. The water sluiced down her back. She was warmer than the water, so warm he found himself trying to wrap closer to her. Hiding his mouth against her shoulder, he closed his eyes and focused only on the heat of her skin, the soft sensation of her fingers on his back, the steady pulse of her heart. His own was pounding and the longer he held her the more the too tight bands around his chest seemed to ease.

The mirror was thoroughly fogged over by the time they shut off the water. While Damien dried off, Kai wiped the surface. Watching her reflection, she braided her damp hair into a loose French braid. Skipping back to where he was, she stole the towel from him. Both of them laughed while she passed it over his head. When she removed the towel, his hair was standing on end. Kai took one look and declared it perfect. Damien flatly declared, “No,” and reached past her for the comb.

He kept the pants he had grabbed and handed her the shirt. She had to roll the sleeves back a few times. When she was finished, she turned in a circle. The hem of the shirt lifted a little away from her thighs.

“What do you think?”

In the mirror, he caught her eye and she smiled.

“What?”

His reflexive response was a joke. He knew she was expecting one. Instead, he shook his head, studying her reflection and memorizing how the light drew paler brown tones from her hair.

“You’re beautiful.”

He was rewarded for his honesty by the pink that dusted her cheeks.

“You’re not so terrible,” she said, circling her arms around his neck. His hands settled on her hips. Standing on her toes, she kissed him. For a brief, perfect second, the world was reduced to just them. Just this moment. Just this feeling. His hands grasped for her when she sank back to the floor. 

“Let’s go to bed.”

The path back to the bedroom was blessedly free of other humans, very human robots and dogs. Lying down, they faced one another across the pillow. He had an arm around her waist. Her fingers twined tenderly through his. 

She felt as right as air to his lungs. 

His hold on her abruptly tightened. There was a thought— _she isn’t real, this is another trick, she isn’t here, she isn’t here_ —he tried to drown with the rich warmth of her body, the comforting weight of her limbs.

Kai stroked his cheek. Her fingers carded through the roughness of his scruff.

“I’m here,” she said quietly. He felt no surprise that she deciphered his fear. A different hurt to his shadowed her features, but her eyes remained soft.

“I’m real, Damien. I’m here,” she assured him. “And I’ll stay right here until you know it too.”

“I’m going to want you long after that,” he warned her in a hollow whisper. 

He had nursed his feelings for her in silence for years. Here they were barely into dating and it was all he could to stop himself confessing that anything less than always would not be enough. He no longer saw a future without her in it—in whatever way she wanted him.

The lights of the city outside ringed the curve of her cheek in silver when she smiled.

“Good,” she said, pressing closer. In the darkness, her eyes shone. “Because so will I.”

The kiss was confession and a blessing. 

He dropped his face against her collarbone with a ragged breath. If she felt the tears, she said nothing. Her fingers ran through his hair as he breathed in the heady scent of her skin.

He should have known. He should have always known. She was inimitable. And no longer memory or fantasy, but here, with him, in a space where only they existed.

Alone together, the sound of her heartbeat surrounded him. Slowly, his came to match hers.


End file.
